Gravity system would ease highway traffic

Tuesday

Jan 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Editor, the Record:

Editor, the Record:

The need for safe alternative transportation continues to be more and more evident almost on a daily basis. The only "hard solution" is "GravTran." GravTran consists of a rail system in a tube (transparent plastic enclosure). The tube is built down a physical incline, wherever there's a hill. Vehicles drive onto a track and are carried, on a cradle, down the slope. Vehicles shut off their engines — no gas — no pollution. As the payload continues to its destination electricity is produced by kinetic energy transfer.

This system provides a minimization of human driver error. As evidenced over the past 10 years, safety inspections, road repairs, MPH adjustments and statistical reporting have not diminished the problem. Things can only get worse as trucks and private vehicles vie for position on an already unsafe road.

We need to initiate a serious discussion regarding an alternate way of moving that traffic down Interstate 80 and around the bottleneck at Stroudsburg. The technology and land (right of way) are there.

It is also apparent that these numerous accidents on I-80 will continue until a major disaster occurs, where a truck carrying unsuspected chemicals, will discharge gas or other lethal substances causing a major evacuation in the Stroudsburg area. This will shut down a major west-to-east artery paralyzing a strategic conduit for goods and services, possibly for weeks. Obviously emergency management is not prepared for this scenario.